Michael Nobbs

Category: Studio Notes

Short updates from my studio about the day’s work, small moments of practice, and the gentle rhythm of making.

  • Traces of my MA

    I woke up from a dream about a friend from long ago, which sent me off (before I’d even made my tea!) in search of traces of my MA from almost 20 years ago. I found an old Flickr account that, amazingly, is still active — and for which I still have the login details.

    Inside was an album of photographs taken by another friend, now dead, of my final show. There was more drawing there than I remember.

    View the full Flickr album.

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  • An emerging 4.00 am drawing habit?

    I seem to be awake at 4.00 am a lot at the moment and have decided, for now, to just go with the flow and draw myself.

    The complete video, in which I leaf through David Hockney’s book Faces 1966–1984, is available over on my Patreon.

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  • Finding my way back here

    A black-ink self-portrait drawing lying on a red, grey and cream checked duvet, beside a dark blue fountain pen. At the top right, a round mirror reflects a bald man with round blue glasses holding a yellow phone. The drawing shows the same view, with glasses, beard and moustache, and is handwritten “another 4:00am me. 6-9-26”.

    It’s been quite a while since I last wrote here. I think gaps can say almost as much as what’s actually said, so I’m not going to try to catch up, but rather begin again from where I am today.

    I’m drawing self-portraits at the moment—joining in with #Selfietember. I’ve bought myself a mirror and have been eyeballing myself in the wee small hours when I haven’t been able to sleep.

    Today felt intimate and uncomfortable. I was very tired, but couldn’t sleep. Wired. I enjoyed making the few marks that made up this drawing.

    Oh, and I’m drawing with a pen these days. My pencil seems to have found its way back into its pencil case—for now, at least.

    Close-up of the black-ink self-portrait on white paper, resting on the checked duvet with a dark blue fountain pen alongside. The loose line drawing shows a bald head, round glasses, beard and moustache, with the words “another 4:00am me. 6-9-26” written underneath.

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  • Drawing without firm ground

    A sketchbook lies open on a blue patterned tea tray resting on a multicoloured crocheted blanket. The tray is white with cut-out handles and lined with a cloth covered in repeating hen shapes. Beside the sketchbook and on the tray sit a lime-green teapot, an orange insulated Stanley mug with steam condensing under the perspex lid, and a carton of barista oat milk. The drawing across the two sketchbook pages shows the same objects arranged on the tray: the mug in the foreground, the teapot above it, and the oat-milk carton to the left, all outlined in loose pencil lines. The background of the drawing is filled with many small hen motifs, repeating across both pages. Handwritten text within the drawing reads “Looking for comfort in the familiar” and “Trying to find some ground. Is there any?”.

    I made a drawing this morning hoping for a little comfort. I drew the objects I know: mug, teapot, oat milk, tray. Familiar companions to steady anxious hands.

    As I worked, I found myself thinking about “firm ground” — the feeling of being steadied by something reliable. I’d hoped the drawing might give me that today. But as the lines unfolded, I realised that hunting for ground might be what pulls me off balance in the first place.

    Maybe there isn’t firm ground in the way I keep wanting it. Maybe drawing is simply a way of staying with that uncertainty for a few minutes at a time — accepting the unsteady surface, line by line, rather than trying to find something solid underneath.

    A note to self: perhaps comfort can come from letting go of the search.

    A closer view of the open sketchbook resting on a blue hen-patterned tray cloth. Only the drawing and a small portion of the white tray edge are visible. The two-page spread shows loose pencil outlines of a lime-green teapot, an orange insulated Stanley mug, and a barista oat-milk carton arranged across the tray. The pages are densely filled with repeated hen motifs drawn beneath and around the objects. Handwritten phrases inside the drawing read “Looking for comfort in the familiar” near the top edge and “Trying to find some ground. Is there any?” along the lower right corner.

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  • Finding out that Mary Gordon had died

    A screenshot of an email message displayed on a laptop screen. The message was sent via the Go Gently website contact form and appears in a plain black-on-white layout. The sender’s name, email address, and phone number are partially visible but have been redacted with blurred or blanked areas. The subject line references Mary by name. The body of the message explains that Mary had died in a hospice in Edinburgh a few days earlier, describes how sudden her illness had been, and expresses sadness and disbelief. At the top of the screen are standard email interface icons, including reply, forward, archive, and search. Below the message, a visible timestamp shows the date and time the message was received. The rest of the laptop screen is dimly visible around the email window.

    From March 2023, this screenshot shows the message sent via my Go Gently website, informing me that my dear friend Mary had died a few days earlier.

    See also: Moleskine Invoice and Drawing Mary (upside down).

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